Fish are fine, but my plants are dying

[MeguVC]

Hello!
I’ve gotten Amazon frogbits a little while ago and they started to become translucent, separated into singles and scattered across the top of my tank. I also think I have two types of algae bloom and I don’t know what’s going on in my tank. The first one is like green, which makes strings going up (I think it’s hair algae?) and the second is black/brown that’s sitting on top of my plants. In regards to the nitrates, it keeps sitting at 50ppm.

Please help! How do I lower my nitrates? What is happening with my plants and how do I solve them?
I’ve tried adding more plants to lower nitrate, but should I increase the dosage of flourish to accommodate the lot? How do I know I won’t overdose my fish? I have my light running between 8-10 hours right now, but should I have it at exact 8 or 10? I know something isn’t balanced, but I don’t know what.

My tank is a 10gal,
75-77 degrees Fahrenheit,
I do 25-50% water changes weekly or biweekly,
I use flourish on Saturday,
Flourish excel every other day, excluding weekends,
0 ammonia & nitrite,
50ppm for hardness,
6.8-7.2pH.
5 Java ferns, 1 anubias, dwarf hair grass mini that hasn’t carpeted yet, the dying frogbits & Java moss
Not sure if it matters, but I also have a big mopani log,
4 cherry shrimp, 1 betta, & 4 neons.
(I want to go to 8, but I put in the neons a few days ago and I’m letting my tank do it’s thing before putting more)

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post pictures of the algae and one of the entire aquarium?

Post pictures of the sick plants too.

Which Seachem flourish do you use, the one for carbon?

Don't add anymore fish or plants until we know what's going on.

Test the tap water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH. Post the results (in numbers) here.

What sort of light unit is above the aquarium?

------------------

Algae grows from an imbalance between light, nutrients and live plants. If you have too much light or too many nutrients and not enough live plants, you get algae.

Java fern, Anubias, hair grass & Java moss are slow growing plants that don't need many nutrients or intense light.

 

[MeguVC]

I have a SEAOURA timed light, it’s 18-24in and 14W. I use flourish comprehensive and yes the one for carbon.
Is there a better liquid fertilizer that you recommend?

Attached is all my plants?
(Assuming I submitting them correctly)
I have a picture on the cluster of Java ferns,
the algae on the log,
a pair of frogbits,
one is of the Java moss but it’s kept in the back,
and the anubias.

A lot of the black/brown algae on the Java fern & anubias was cleaned because I did my water change yesterday, but it was significantly worse. It almost covered the entire plant.

The tests on my tap is straight 0s. The pH is closer to 8, but ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0.

 

[Colin_T]

The black slimy stuff on the driftwood and Java Fern is blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). It comes in a range of colours including green, red, pink, blue, black & brown. It is a photosynthetic bacteria (bacteria that can photosynthesise) that loves light, nutrients and low oxygen levels. In this case I would say it loves all the nutrients in your water (high nitrate and plant fertiliser).

Treatment involves reducing nutrients and physically removing the Cyanobacteria.
Take driftwood and ornaments outside and hose them off before putting them back in the tank.

Do big (75%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate every day for a couple of weeks.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Ti the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.

Increase aeration and water movement around the bottom of the tank.

Reduce dry food.

Stop adding fertiliser for a few weeks (or longer) until it is under control.

------------------

The green algae on the driftwood is green filamentous algae and grows from the same reason as the blue green algae (too many nutrients). Cleaning the tank and stopping fertiliser for a few weeks should help with that too.

------------------

Do not use the liquid carbon (carbon dioxide) fertilisers because they are normally made from Glutaraldehyde, which is a highly toxic disinfectant that has no place in an aquarium.

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)
There is no point adding carbon dioxide (CO2) until you have the lights and nutrients worked out. Even then you don't need CO2 unless the tank is completely full of fast growing true aquatic plants and only has a few small fish in or no fish in it.

In an average aquarium, there is a constant source of carbon dioxide produced all day and night by the fish, and the bacteria in the gravel and filter. More CO2 gets into the aquarium from the air mixing with the water. And plants release small amounts of CO2 when resting. There is no real need to add CO2, either in a gas or liquid form to an aquarium unless it is devoid of fish. There is plenty of CO2 in the water in most aquariums.

For aquarium plants to use supplemental CO2, they need lots of light and lots of nutrients. Unless they have the light and nutrients, they won't use a lot of CO2, so there's no point adding extra. To check if your plants are getting lots of light, see if any of them produce streams of tiny little bubbles from their leaves. This is called pearling and is the plant photosynthesising and producing tiny bubbles of oxygen. Algae also does this when given bright light and nutrients.

The green filamentous algae on the driftwood is pearling and this is seen as little air bubbles in the algae.

------------------

The Amazon frogbit plant could be suffering from lack of light or it was cooked before you got it. A lot of plants are grown outdoors in warm areas and are use to bright sunlight. When they get put in aquariums under artificial light, they can struggle to adapt and die. If the plant was exposed to a lot of heat during transit, that can also cause leaves to fade and die. If it dies off look for Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) and see if that does better.

Having the lights on for 8-10 hours a day should be ok but you will need to monitor the algae over the next few months and tweak the lighting to your tank.

If you get lots of green algae then reduce the light by an hour a day and monitor the algae over the next 2 weeks.
If you don't get any green algae on the glass then increase the lighting period by an hour and monitor it.
If you get a small amount of algae then the lighting time is about right.

Some plants will close their leaves up when they have had sufficient light. Ambulia, Hygrophilas and a few others close their top set of leaves first, then the next set and so on down the stem. When you see this happening, wait an hour after the leaves have closed up against the stem and then turn lights off.

The plants you have are slow growing low light plants that don't need lots of light or fertiliser. I would stop using all fertiliser for at least 2 (probably 4) weeks and see how thigns go. Then after things have settled down, add the normal (non carbon) fertiliser once a week. And do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each week before adding more fertiliser.

This stuff also works for blue green algae.
https://www.amazon.com/Ultralife-Gr...blue+green+algae+killer&qid=1677714439&sr=8-1